END-TRUE: Emerging Nanotechnology-Based Double-Throughput True Random Number Generator
Abstract
True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) are essential primitives in any cryptographic system. They provide the foundation to secure authorization and authentication. This work proposes a generator that exploits the metastability effect of cross-coupled logic gates, as found in SR latches. Based on emerging reconfigurable transistor technology, a random number generator design has been proposed that doubles the throughput, compared to a similar standard CMOS design, by exploiting transistor-level reconfiguration. The proposed design is superior in terms of the number of transistors per block, power consumption and in critical path delay with respect to its CMOS counterpart. Random Number bit sequence are generated by operating the given design at three operating frequencies of 10 MHz, 100 MHz and 200 MHz. Firstly, the Shannon entropy for the generated bit sequence is measured, and then the generated bit sequence are subjected to statistical evaluation using the NIST benchmark suite. The $$P^\prime $$P′ values for the NIST benchmarks is above the accepted threshold, which underlines the assumption that the designed circuit produces the random numbers based on the metastability effect.